


Code Name for the Kid Next Door

by dumbbfuckk



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: F/M, i liked the idea of kiddo jason doing something good and selfless before becoming robin, there's like one curse word i think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-31
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-05-10 15:09:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5590906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dumbbfuckk/pseuds/dumbbfuckk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason runs into someone who knew him before he was ever Robin, before he was ever on the streets to begin with.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Code Name for the Kid Next Door

**Author's Note:**

> This is a jumbled mess because its my first fic that I'm posting so here goes nothing. I normally hate original characters but I decided to give it a try and I didn't ackowledge Roy's and Kori's place in Jason's life because I wanted to focus on his relationships with members of the Bat family.

Jason hated patrolling, especially for the Bats, but it meant some time to let out some anger and be alone. Wayne Manor was far too crowded nowadays but Dick made it clear that if Jason wanted a relationship with any of them, then he had do the dirty work too. Don't get him wrong, its not like he needed a relationship with them, its just--whatever, it didn't matter.

Jason was jumping between buildings when he heard someone calling for help. He turned almost completely and headed for the university. When he arrived, a man was crumpled on the floor, gasping for help in a far too dark alleyway. A woman stood above him, shaking slightly, but standing her ground, with her fists balled up by her face.

Jason removed his mask to correctly identify the whimpering heap. He recognized him as a low level drug dealer from when Jason was Gotham's crime lord. It seems as though the man had moved on to theft and other petty crimes.

He had meant to get rid of scum like him before the Bats and his stick up the ass decided that "no killing" was the way to go. If everyone lived by the "no killing" policy, then maybe Jason wouldn't have had to claw his way out of a grave. Whatever.

This guy was Jason's problem but it looked like the girl took care of it. He could see the plastic bottom of a pepper spray bottle poking out of one of her fists and her stance was completely wrong. Jason barked out a short, bitter laugh at how much larger the man was and how much enjoyment Jason would get from kicking his ass.

The laugh surprised the woman and she turned quickly to face him. He glanced at her before walking towards the man.

"JT? Is that you?"

Jason looked back at her, surprised at hearing the voice. A car's headlights washed over her face for a fraction of a second before submerging them both back in darkness and something clicked for Jason in a faint memory of a girl with big hair and kind eyes.

"KC?"

Her shoulders immediately relaxed but confusion was written all over her face.

He started, "What are you--"

"I never thought--"

"--doing here?"

"--I'd see you again!"

They walked closer and she let him speak.

"I live here. In Gotham. What are you...?"

"I, uh, I work at the university and the hospital; it's my first day. This is crazy," she said the last part to herself in a faint whisper.

Jason wanted to know the answers to the questions he always wondered about but never felt he had the right to.

What happened to you? Where'd you go? Did I do the right thing?

He had resolved himself to never knowing the answers but now, here she was. 

Without thinking, he enveloped her in a hug and saw the crumpled man behind her beginning to stir, reaching for his pockets. Jason twisted and pulled KC behind him. He grabbed the man quickly and gave him two swift punches that knocked him unconscious. Normally, he'd rough them up more but not in front of her. He threw the man over his shoulder and looked back at her shocked form.

With a nod and a smile, he said softly, "I'll see ya around, Kifah."

Jason walked into the shadow of an alleyway and disappeared before she could respond.

\---------------------------------------------

Jason was only five years old when she moved into the apartment right across the hall. She was a foster child, temporarily living with a woman named Frankie. The little girl always had her hair tied back in a sloppy French braid that never allowed a single curl to peak out of its trap.

To Jason, she was brown-skinned and beautiful. He would never tell her that; instead, he would tease her endlessly about her faint freckles and the darkness of her eyes.

He knew the girl as Kim Carver, although she once whispered to him that "Kim" wasn't her real name.

"What is it then?"

"I can't tell you... Frankie says it means something bad and thats why my mom didn't like me so she gave me away."

"C'mon, just tell me. I won't tell, I promise."

Her eyes darted around and, although no one looked twice at the two kids crouched by the window, she whispered her secret to him:

"Kifah."

Jason smiled widely, "I'll call you... 'KC,' okay?"

She looked at him in confusion.

He explained in a rush, as if this was a secret mission and they had come up with code names, "Because 'Kim' isn't your real name and I can't say your real name or you'll get in trouble so I'll just use your initials. You call me 'JT'!"

They would often play together in the hallway, since it was so much larger than either of their apartments, when Frankie and Jason's mom went out who-knows-where doing who-knows-what. The Todd residence rarely saw Jason's father as it was and KC just had Frankie, except for the occasional boyfriend.

One morning, the two snuck out of their apartments early in the morning, before either of their guardians came home, before even the sun had come up. They stood together on the fire escape with a scarce chill that allowed them to see their breath in the briefest of moments.

They were holding hands before they realized it and when they did finally notice, neither pulled away, which felt like invitation enough. Jason stared at KC's hair in the dim morning because he saw it out of its ensnaring braid for the first time in the almost four years since she made the trek up to the third floor, carrying a small, tattered bag with her. Every curl fell effortlessly past her shoulders and quietly caught the wind, swaying ever so slightly. 

She watched the sky and he watched her. They were tucked in the corner of the building and couldn't actually see the sun but it was beautiful nonetheless. When the sky stopped changing color and stayed a dull consistent blue, KC turned to look at Jason.

He let go of her hand so he could pluck a curl out of the mass and allow it to twist around his finger. They stood quietly, just for a second, until they both heard the not-so-quiet chug-chug-chug of Frankie's beat up car.

Before they ran back to their respective apartments and to their respective beds to pretend they had been obediently sleeping the morning away, Jason leaned over and kissed KC so quickly that she wondered if it had really happened or if it was simply her imagination.

She never found out because Jason stopped coming out of the apartment. KC thought he was embarrassed or didn't like her anymore but found out from Frankie that his mother was sick.

Frankie didn't go out as much after that but she did bring home a boyfriend who stayed longer than the others usually did. Jason saw him through the peep hole and had an uneasy feeling. He was older and looked at KC strangely. Jason knew what would happen when he made the call to Child Protective Services but he also knew what would happen if he didn't.

He hoped he never saw her again.

\---------------------------------------------

Everything was different, but still the same, in a way. Dick was still the golden boy and the family still felt too small for Jason. 

There was Tim, the replacement, and there was Damian, the actual fucking son of Batman. Sure, there was Steph and Cass and Barbara but it was different with them. 

Steph and Cass were distant and he acknowledged that he resented them for the fact that they reminded him how large the family had gotten and how there never seemed to be enough room for him. 

Barbara... oh, Barbara. When he looked at her, he saw how both of their lives had been so drastically changed by two maniacs. How they were once Batgirl and Robin and now, Oracle and the Red Hood. How different it all was.

She made him miss being Batman's sidekick and he hated her for it because he hated being Batman's sidekick. He hated the fact that he didn't strike out on his own, that he needed to die to learn how to live.

The family would always be too big and too small for him. After all, who was he? Jason, the disappointment? No, he decided, he couldn't even be that when they refused to make room for him.

At least that's what he told himself. 

He denied the truth: being Robin was one of the happiest times of his life and his family had made room for him; there would always be the big, gaping hole in that stitched up family just for him.

To them, he was Jason, the second Robin, their big brother who went through hell and back. He saw the admiration in their eyes and convinced himself it was something else.

And, oh, how he lived before, how he loved every minute of it.

Only the stubbornness that is Jason Todd could deny the undeniable. The truth that Dick and Tim and Damian and Steph and Cass and Barbara and Alfred and Bruce were all waiting for him to come home. 

He denied it all.

"After everything," he thought, "who could love me?"

When he looked at KC, it was different than looking at the occupants of Wayne Manor. KC was the only survivor of his past that hadn't been dragged through the worst of pains because of him, the only one who carried memories of Jason that held no vendetta or spite or anger.

He saw her often on his patrols and learned her schedule between the hospital and the university fairly quickly. Sometimes, he would let her see him, acting as though he "always walked down this street at this time" or he "didn't see you there but would you like to get some coffee down the street?"

It was comfortable and warm. Like how their hands fit together many mornings ago when they watched different beautiful things.


End file.
